If you are drowning in debt, if you are seriously delinquent on your monthly payments, your credit
cards are maxed out, and you are being charged late fees, finance charges, and over-the-limit fees every
month, then it is time for you to take back control over your finances and destroy your debt.
If digging yourself out of debt seems like an insurmountable and demoralizing prospect, then you
should seek professional help from a consumer debt counseling agency.
Millions of people have sought help from these agencies and have found the proverbial light at the end
of the tunnel. They are now debt-free and rebuilding their credit.
What these agencies do is negotiate with your creditors on your behalf for a lower interest rate,
lower monthly payments, and a lower payoff balance. They deal directly with the creditors so that you no
longer have to. In fact, soon after starting a debt consolidation plan, you can expect the harassing
phone calls and the collection notices to stop. You can expect to get out of debt within a few short
years by paying one monthly payment directly to the agency. This monthly payment will be significantly
lower than the total of what you were paying to each individual creditor.
What's the catch? Is this too good to be true? The only "catch" is that while you are on the debt
consolidation plan, your credit score may go down. But the upside of this is that you will be out of debt
much sooner, and once you are out of debt, your credit score will rebound. This is by virtue of the fact
that your accounts will all be marked as "paid in full" on your credit report. Also, because a debt counseling agency is business like any other,
they will of course keep a small percentage of your monthly payments as their commission. But this is
inconsequential, considering that your new monthly payment is much lower than what you were paying
before, possibly by as much as 50%.
